The Polar Bear Scientists by Peter Lourie (Scientists in the Field Series)

Follow scientists as they scan the Alaskan wilderness for these magnificent creatures. It is springtime on the North Slope of Alaska, and the U.S. Geological Survey team—the polar bear biologists Kristin Simac and Mike Lockhart—is gearing up for polar bear capturing. During a capture, all information is collected on the sea ice. The scientists locate bears from a helicopter, tranquilize them, give them tattoo ID numbers and tags, and collect data such as height, weight, and body fat measurements and samples such as blood, hair, feces, and even teeth. All this information goes into alarge database studied by scientists such as Drs. Steven Amstrup and George Durner, the former and current leaders of the Polar Bear Research Project. For more than forty years, scientists have been capturing bears in order to get information. What has this information been telling scientists about polar bears and global warming?

Peter Lourie is the author and photographer of Whaling Season,which received two starred reviews, and The Manatee Scientists. Peter lives in Vermont with his family and he is an avid traveler. He visited Alaska numerous times to write and shoot photos for The Polar Bear Scientists and has been traveling to Africa to work on his next book about the Leakey family.Visit Peter Lourie's website at http://www.peterlourie.com/ .

Unrated Critic Reviews for The Polar Bear Scientists

Kirkus Reviews

Before meeting the two scientists and pilot whose adventures lie at the center of this tangle, readers are introduced to other players: the mechanic who follows the field work in real time on his computer in Barrow and the former and current heads of the project.

New York Journal of Books

“In The Polar Bear Scientists, author Peter Lourie makes a fascinating and compelling case for the importance of studying polar bears. For they are the apex predators of the Arctic—the gigantic white canaries in the mines that tell us something is not right with their world. . . . What does it sa...